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Jay Beagle was absolutely dominant tonight, helping the Caps outshoot the Sabres 18 to 4 while he was on the ice during 5v5. The handsome pup even scored a goal while skating in the top six, after Troy Brouwer flubbed his initial shot attempt.

Brooks Laich hadn’t scored since January 7. Since then the $4.5 million a year player had been a healthy scratch and now a fourth liner. That bottom line, though, is filled with rejected top-sixers rather than talentless scrubs — one member of the Sabres organization quipped that it was better than Buffalo’s first line. On Saturday night, that line — Laich, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson — added Washington’s fourth tally of the night, Laich’s first goal in two months.

“I sort of flashed back to the first goal I ever scored in the NHL,” Laich told reporters after the game. “It was in Montreal and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I got back to the bench and Glen Hanlon he says ‘congratulations.’ I was like ‘dude, I can’t stop smiling.’ He was like ‘good, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.’ This one sort of felt like that.”

The Buffalo tank job made a stop in DC, and boy was it fun. The Sabres scored the game’s first goal, and we were scared for a moment, but then tanks gonna tank.

No, really. There was a moment when the 2014-15 Capitals were losing to the 2014-15 Sabres. Johan Larsson actually beat Braden Holtby after the top line lost a defensive-zone faceoff and then got a little careless in their own zone. The Caps took over after that. Mike Green carried the puck all the way down below the goal line and set up Curtis Glencross for his second goal in a Caps uniform.

Jay Beagle ground out a goal in the second period, and Brooks Laich got the monkey off his back before the second intermission. Joel Ward made it 5-1 with a superhuman effort in the power-play paint, and Marcus Johansson got a Swedish wraparound on an uninterested Sabres defense late.

Jason Chimera has been involved lately. He’s been scoring goals and playing an angrier, grittier game. That continued against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night. As Tyson Strachan and Mike Weber put a cheap shot the Caps forward in the corner, Weber pulled Chimera’s jersey over his head and started throwing jabs.

Alex Ovechkin just scored his 44th goal of the season. It came during the power play from, oh c’mon, you know where. But, this time, instead of overpowering Matt Hackett with his heavy shot, Ovechkin waited until the birthday-celebrating goaltender flinched and then sent a deceptive shot to the five hole. Hackett must have have thought it was a pass to Marcus Johansson.

The Capitals’ second line has struggled with scoring this season, but the times, they are a changing.’ New trade-deadline-addition Curtis Glencross has just scored his second goal as a Capital. It came after a beautiful pass from Mike Green and Mike Green’s magical, discontinued Easton Stealth Stick.

The Ovechkin-less Capitals had a hard time generating offense against the Wild the other night. Even if Ovi misses tonight’s game (which is a possibility), the Caps will have no excuse should they do it again. The 2014-15 Buffalo Sabres are one of the worst NHL teams of all time and they like it that way. They even traded away Michal Neuvirth to make the team worse. Worse!

I mean, they’re still not as bad as our beloved 74-75 Capitals, who won just 8 (great) games and got outscored 446 to 181. So if anyone tries to say the Sabres are the worst team of all time, you have my permission to Kanye them.